by Robert Boren
“Let’s get back to the plan,” Vermillion said.
Klemperer continued. “The plan is simple. We place a hundred flight suits near the Clan battleships in each location. Fifty will be programmed to attack the ground installations. The others will be poised to attack the battleships.”
“How are those flight suits gonna do any damage to the battleships?” I asked.
Klemperer smiled. “When the flight suits are in place, we’ll jump in with a hundred fighters in each location, and attack the troop transports. This should draw Clan fighters out of those battleships. While the bay doors are open, we’ll sneak the flight suits in, wait until the bay re-pressurizes, and release their payloads. No need to stick with Variant Three Nanos there. We’ll let them have it with un-restricted Variant Four Nanos.”
“Ouch,” Nolan said. “That’ll make a mess.”
Klemperer nodded. “We’ll also release Variant Three Nanos set at max to disable the ships.”
I sat there thinking for a moment. “That’s a good plan. We might lose a few fighters when the Clan fighters attack, though.”
“After we’ve destroyed the troop transport ships, we’ll jump away. The Clan fighters will be stranded, because their battleships will be out of commission in a hurry.”
“Won’t our flight suits be stranded there, available for reverse-engineering?” JJ asked.
“If they can’t get out, they’ll self-destruct, setting off very nice nuclear explosions in the bowels of the ships,” Estes said.
“That will take out twenty Clan battleships,” I said. “Based on the last total I saw, that’s about a third.”
“That’s pretty close,” Estes said. “We’ll be poking the hornet’s nest with this attack. There has been traffic of ships between here and the Clan Zone, but if most of the ships are here, that’s forty Clan battleships.”
“They can’t see us,” Nolan said.
“At least so far, anyway,” I said. “We need to strike in the Clan Zone quickly.”
“Before we go there, are there questions or concerns about the plan that Commander Klemperer has proposed?”
“I think it’s a brilliant plan,” I said. “We have details to work out, of course, but this will hurt the enemy badly. They might decide to give up.”
“I’m a little worried about the Central Authority’s Razor ships,” Cyrus said. “Why aren’t they involved with the Clan activities?”
That comment hit me like a thunderbolt. “What if Aeon has lost control of those ships?”
JJ locked eyes with me. “The Captains of those ships might be hiding rather than teaming with the Clan. You would.”
“Yep,” I said.
“And that leads us to the next issue,” Vermillion said. “No objections to the plan? No other questions?”
Nobody said anything.
“All right,” Vermillion said. “On to the other topic. Simone and the Overlords.”
“Will they be involved in this operation?” I asked.
“Are you still talking with her?” JJ asked.
“Yes, I’ve been chatting with her daily,” Vermillion said. “She’s thinking exactly what JJ is. Aeon has lost control of his space forces.”
“Does Simone still have a way to contact the Central Authority ships?” Nolan asked.
“She’s telling me they won’t communicate with her,” Vermillion said. “They blame her for this whole mess.”
“Does she know what we’re about to do?” I asked.
“No,” Vermillion said. “We were going to bring her in to take on the other Clan battleships while we run our mission. We’d have to help her tune her Razors for that to work. We don’t trust her enough to do that. She’s still lying to us.”
“We need to contact one of those Central Authority Razors, or even one of their Centurion Class ships,” Nolan said.
“I’ve still got a token for my last Centurion ship,” I said. “I could try to contact it. They might block me, but I was good friends with the captain who took over when I moved on. He might still be on that ship.”
“Who?” JJ asked.
“Bryce Cannon.”
“I know him,” Vermillion said. “He was an old drinking buddy. Wondered what happened to him in all this mess.”
“Shall I go try?” I asked. “The token is in the New Jersey stateroom.”
“Will it give away our position?” Vermillion asked.
“Try that after the meeting,” Vermillion said. “We need to finish here.”
“Is Simone the enemy again?” Nolan asked.
Vermillion sighed. “I just don’t know.”
“What kind of lies have you caught her in?” JJ asked.
“I’ve given her several chances to fess up that she was playing us off against Prime Minister Aeon. She’s avoiding that issue, and changes the subject as soon as I bring up Hamilton Zenos.”
“Does she know we can see the Clan ships?” JJ asked.
Vermillion nodded. “Yes, I told her to see what her reaction would be.”
“What was her reaction?” I asked.
“Looked like sheer terror to me,” Vermillion said. “Might have been an act. She’s always been good at that. She might have known they were here before we made contact.”
JJ thought silently for a moment. “The Clan probably sold the Central Authority variants of the Razor ships that aren’t to the highest development level. We need to know how much difference there is. If the Clan had the wherewithal to build these ships, it’s likely they know how to tune them. It’s also likely they’ve studied the weak points of that platform.”
“Having a conversation with Bryce Cannon might solve that,” I said. “The Central Authority has more Razors than the Overlords, if we can believe Simone. Bryce isn’t the only captain I know, either. There are several. If we could recruit them, we could help them tune their ships and go after the Clan.”
“That’s the best shot I know of,” Vermillion said. “Maybe we ought to break from this meeting and let Captain Clarke give that a try. We’re clear on the mission. Does anybody not know what to do?”
“We’re already working it full speed, as I said,” Estes replied.
“I suggest we send the Zephyrus down to Amberis to pick up any fuel that’s ready, and jump to Earth’s solar system,” I said. “I’ll attempt the contacts before we take off, but we don’t have to hold off the mission if we don’t make contact.”
Vermillion smiled. “Okay, we’ve got our marching orders. Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help. I’ll contact Tac and let him know we’re sending the Zephyrus for a pickup.”
The meeting broke up, JJ and I heading for the stateroom.
“Thoughts?” I asked.
JJ looked at me as we walked to the transport station. “The enemy has done a good job of isolating us. The scary p
art is that we don’t know for sure who the enemy is. Prime Minister Aeon might be a prisoner, or he might be dirty. We don’t have the facts to determine which it is.”
We got onto a tin can, arriving at the stateroom in minutes. I went to the safe and dug out the old token. “Haven’t tried this in a long time. Hope they didn’t change the protocol.”
“Thanks,” I said, putting the token in the standard communication device. “Well, the system ran the token check and approved it. Ready to bounce the message, Butch?”
“We’re sure they won’t be able to trace us?” JJ asked, sitting on the end of the bed watching me.
I found Bryce’s contact and punched it.
“Hope this works,” JJ said.
I sat at my desk, ticking off the seconds, my heart beating faster. Then the green indicator light came on.
“Trey?”
“What was I drinking at my going-away party, after leaving the Skipjack?”
Bryce chuckled. “Wow, it’s you. We got blasted on Weng-Wengs.”
I laughed. “You just passed the test, Bryce.”
“Where are you? There’s a lot of latency.”
“On the run, bouncing the signal all over so we can’t be traced. Don’t have a choice.”
“We’ve been told bad stuff about you,” Bryce said, “not that I believe any of it.”
“Don’t tell me, let me guess. Clan collusion.”
“Actually we were only told that lie about Chairman Vermillion. Is he safe? We were close.”
“He’s with me, on the New Jersey.”
“Glad to hear it.”
“What are they saying about me?”
Bryce sighed. “Nothing nearly that bad. You stole Central Authority property, namely the New Jersey, and attacked Central Authority ships with it.”
“Does Prime Minister Aeon still control his space fleet?”
Bryce paused for a moment. “We don’t even know if the Prime Minister is alive anymore. We can’t raise him or any of the high command. The Central Authority fleet was attacked right after that summit went off the rails. The survivors split. We’re in hiding.”
“Who attacked you?”
“About thirty Razor ships. Our Razors hit back while the lessor ships fled. Lost five of our Razors, but took out seven of theirs. Good captains and crews, all dead.”
“Who do you think that was?”
“At first we thought it was Simone, but the drive profiles weren’t right… and by the way, we can’t raise her either. I think we’re being invaded.”
JJ and I shot each other a glance. “Can you send me the scans you did of the attackers?”
Bryce chuckled. “You know who it was. So do I. It was the Clan. They produced the Razor ships, by the way. We were angry with the high command about that. They’ve kept it secret from the Central Authority Senate and HPDR. That’s illegal as hell. One of our best engineers figured out that the tuning on our Razors was hobbled on purpose. He brought it up, and was arrested for his trouble. That’s another reason why we split right after the attack. We can’t trust the Central Authority government.”
“You don’t know the half of it. The scan?”
“On it’s way now. The way you’re bouncing this around, it’s gonna take a few minutes.”
“Dammit,” I said. “We got it. It’s a Clan profile. There are sixty Clan Razor battleships in the Central Authority zone, plus a whole lot of troop transports.”
“Son of a bitch,” Bryce said, his anger seething over the call. “They’ve killed us all.”
“No they haven’t, but we’ll have to join forces to beat them.”
“You’ve got a plan?”
“Yes. I don’t have permission to tell you details yet.”
“No problem, I understand. I hope you’ve got more than one ship. Is Simone with you?”
“We’ve made contact, but aren’t sure we can trust her. She’s not being honest.”
“Just between you and me, she got screwed over big time by the Prime Minister. Don’t know how the Clan plays into all of this, but I’m very suspicious. We all thought she positioned her ships around Earth after the incident on Devonia Axxiom to coax Vermillion into joining her.”
“That’s exactly what she did, and that’s why we made contact. I’ll just leave it at that. I want to believe she’d be a good partner. So does Vermillion.”
“They were lovers, way back in the day. Don’t tell him I mentioned it.”
I laughed. “He’s never admitted to that, but I think it’s pretty obvious, judging by how she affected him in a video conference we had with her. She seemed to be affected by him as well.”
“Does she know where you are?”
“Nope,” I said.
“How are you going to take on the Clan with one ship?”
“We have more than one battle-worthy ship, and we have some toys nobody knows about. That’s as much as I’ll say.”
“So what now?” Bryce asked.
“I’ll talk to Vermillion. Can you trust the other captains?”
“I’d trust them with my life.”
“Good, then let them know we’ve made contact. Watch out for bugs and plants, though. We found both.”
“Who?”
I sighed. “Probably Simone, placed during her time as security chief.”
“Geez.”
“Hey, one other thing. How much do you know about the attempted coup on Devonia Axxiom?”
“Quite a bit,” Bryce said. “What do you want to know?”
“Did Simone’s forces go rabid during the ground battle?”
“No. We were told by high command that it was locals with some kind of sickness, but we knew that was bullshit. Others said it was Simone’s forces, but we figured out that was a lie right away. We did some checking on our own. It was a third party, and that was the main reason the coup failed.”
“What do you think of the coup attempt?”
“Don’t repeat this with my name to it to anybody but Vermillion,” Bryce said.
“No problem–but one thing. JJ Ostermann is in the room.”
“Oh, I know her. Good friends with Cyrus, too, but they aren’t together anymore.”
“JJ and I are together. Say hello, honey.”
“Hi, Bryce. Good to hear your voice. Sorry I didn’t reveal myself right away.”
“No problem. Good to hear your voice too.”
“Cyrus is with us as well,” I said. “He’s captain of the Tristar.”
“Okay, I trust both of them. Here goes. The Prime Minister was already out of power by that time, and I think Simone knew it. Scratch that, I’m sure of it.”
“From my vantage point, I agree,” I said. “Go talk to the others, and I’ll chat with Vermillion. I might bring him into a conversation with us. Maybe we can get a group together from both sides.”
“Okay, Trey. Thanks. I was losing hope. Now I’m feeling a little bit better. Talk to you soon.”
{ 14 }
Grand Deception
J J looked at me. “Well, what do you think?”
“I think we have a fighting chance. Butch, see if the Chairman can meet with us.”
“Shall we?” I asked, shutting down the communications system. I pulled the token and slipped it into my pocket.
JJ nodded, and we left the stateroom, going to the transit station. The tin can got us to Vermillion’s office in a few minutes. He ushered us into his private conference room.
“Thanks for seeing us so quickly,
” I said.
“You made contact. I can see it on your face.”
I smiled. “Great to talk to an old friend.” I filled him in on the conversation.
Vermillion leaned back in his chair, thinking. “You’re sure it was him?”
JJ snickered. “Trey gave him a test.”
“I’m almost afraid to hear what it was,” Vermillion said.
“I asked him what we got drunk on at my going away party, when he took over the Skipjack.”
Vermillion grinned. “What was it?”
“Weng-wengs,” I said.
“Those are harsh,” Vermillion said. “Philippines, right? Made famous after the great war of the late 2020s.”
“Interesting that Bryce has such a good opinion of Simone,” Vermillion said. “Wonder if we should let her know we’ve made contact?”
“She said they wouldn’t return her calls,” JJ said. “We’d better tread lightly until we’ve talked to Bryce and the other survivors.”
“You have a standard communicator, right?” I asked.
“I’d have to dust it off, but yes, there’s one in my office. Why?”
I pulled the token out of my pocket and held it up. “Brought this along, just in case.”
“Think he’s talked to the others yet?” JJ asked. “It’s been less than half an hour.”
“He can’t call us,” I said. “We can give him a little time before we try him. I’m fine with that.”
“Oh,” I said, putting the token back in my pocket. “Later, then.”